Studio Ghibli specialty shop wants to keep your papercraft Totoro safe.
Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku is packed with cute, beautiful, and otherwise awesome memorabilia from the anime production house’s animated films, from finger puppets to fountain figurines. If you’re looking for a lovely piece of art not only to display, but also to assemble yourself, the Paper Theater series is a perfect choice.
Each kit is composed of an array of wooden or paper pieces to cut out which form the characters and environment. The way in which the elements are layered creates a three-dimensional field of dept, creating a sense that you could step right into this little Ghibli pocket world, or maybe that its citizens could come leaping out into ours.
However, there’s also a downside to the Paper Theater series. They’re too thick to fit into the sort of frame you’d use for a poster, but they’re also not as sturdy or stable as a diorama-style figurine made of more substantial materials would be.
It’s bad enough if your anime art gets damaged, but it’s even worse when it’s something you put together yourself. Thankfully, Donguri Kyowakoku has just added specialized frames for displaying and protecting assembled Paper Theater projects to its inventory.
The frames are manufactured by Ensky, the same company that produces the Paper Theater kits. Two sizes are on offer, one which accommodates kits measuring 16 x 10 x 4.2 centimeters (6.3 x 3.9 x 1.7 inches), and the other kits with dimensions of 10 x 8 x 4.2 centimeters.
Those two sizes cover the vast majority of Ghibli Paper Theater sets, andeach of the frames allows for either vertical or horizontal display, to match the orientation of the kit you’ve put together.
▼ The plastic frames have a wood-grain look to them and are available in “natural,” “pearl white,” or “ash brown” colors.
The small frames are priced at 2,200 yen (US$14) and the large ones at 2,750, while the Paper Theater kits themselves range from roughly 2,000 to 3,000 yen, with all of them offered through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store here.
